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I've been picked up from airports in taxis before | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
but never had to go to a jetty and be picked up by boat. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
'He's Piers Taylor, an award-winning architect.' | 0:00:10 | 0:00:14 | |
This building is so tactile and just rich, materially. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:19 | |
'And she's Caroline Quentin, | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
'acclaimed actress and passionate property developer.' | 0:00:21 | 0:00:25 | |
I've been expecting you, Mr Bond! | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
'We've been given the keys to some of the most incredible houses in | 0:00:28 | 0:00:32 | |
'the world...' | 0:00:32 | 0:00:33 | |
-It's chock full of surprises, isn't it? -Ooh! | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
'..to discover the design innovation, | 0:00:37 | 0:00:39 | |
'passion and endurance needed to transform architectural vision | 0:00:39 | 0:00:44 | |
'into an extraordinary home.' | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
If this was Hollywood, I'd be snogging you now. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
'Together we'll be travelling the globe...' | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
-Look down there. -I would but I'm trying not to kill us. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
No, you look ahead. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
'..meeting the architects and owners who have taken on the challenge | 0:00:57 | 0:01:01 | |
'of building unconventional homes in demanding locations.' | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
Just another day on the wing of a 747. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
'Whether it's navigating the logistics of constructing a house | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
'on top of a remote mountain...' | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
Why would you build a house where you can only get there | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
by cable car? | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
'..negotiating the ancient trees of a fragile forest...' | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
You never see a building this close to the trees, | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
I mean, that's six inches away. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:24 | |
'..having a sea view whilst perched on the edge of | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
'a dramatic coastal shoreline...' | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
I'd love to know how you actually built this on what appears | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
to be a sort of vertical cliff face. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
'..or excavating the earth to build a home deep underground.' | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
No-one had ever built something like this before. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
It's a tightrope you're walking. It can go spectacularly wrong. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
Building a subterranean house embedded in the earth can provide | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
an intriguing and magical living experience. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
Look how thick that bit of ground is. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:02 | |
This is another world in here. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
But unearthing the landscape in order to build these ambitious homes | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
is a path few dare to tread. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
There is always a moment when you feel fear. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:14 | |
Nature is never to come back the same way. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:16 | |
Caroline and I will be travelling from the undulating foothills of the | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
Southern Alps of New Zealand... | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
We had to use explosives to blow it all out. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
..to the sweeping green valleys of Switzerland. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
So, did you have a budget in mind when you started this build? | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
Yeah, but we didn't make it. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
And from the lowlands of a Dutch nature reserve | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
to the coastal farmlands of the Greek islands. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:40 | |
The architects and I threw up our hands and said, "Do you know what, | 0:02:40 | 0:02:42 | |
"it just isn't working." | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
Discovering what it takes to design, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
build and live in the world's most extraordinary underground houses. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:52 | |
Construction is stressful, it's tiring. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
It was hard labour and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
'The first stop on our discovery of underground architecture takes us to | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
'the Aegean Sea...' | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
'..and to the Greek island of Antiparos.' | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
You love Greece, don't you? | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
I love it. I've been coming to Greece for 40 years | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
and I think it's about my favourite place in the world. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
I think it's the colour of the water, | 0:03:27 | 0:03:28 | |
the colour of the sky and, still, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:30 | |
-it's so unspoilt. -Little white squares still. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
-Yeah. -Exactly as you imagined it's going to be. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
There's nothing big, nothing breaking the skyline. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
There's a rule here that you can only build | 0:03:38 | 0:03:40 | |
so far in one direction before you've got to turn or break it down. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
Oh, I see, and that explains all the little boxes. I see. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
These, historically, would have been fishermen's houses | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
and probably a bit of subsistence farming. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
'We're heading to a spacious underground holiday home | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
'where the owners wanted a contemporary house | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
'big enough to entertain their family and friends.' | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
The challenge facing the architects was to design a house with stunning | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
sea views from each of its nine bedrooms. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
But, at the same time, discreetly conceal the building. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
I mean, I know we're going to go and see, rather bizarrely, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
an underground house here. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
-Yeah. -Which I think is a really odd choice given that | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
this is some of the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
A view is a two-way responsibility and actually if you build on that | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
to look at the view, you also have to accept that you are making | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
something that people will look at. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:37 | |
Yeah. But presumably that's why they've taken this underground option. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
-Yeah. -So that, something like 80% or 90% of this house is underground, | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
which sounds hideous to me because I'm slightly claustrophobic | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
and I can't bear the thought of being underground. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
But I think this house is actually designed as a piece of landscape | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
rather than a building. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:52 | |
So you don't think it's going to be dark, and dingy, and damp? | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
-I hope it isn't, and it would be a real shame if it was. -Yeah. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
'Helping us locate this coastal hideaway is Theo, | 0:04:58 | 0:05:03 | |
'who looks after the owner's home for them whilst they're back in the UK.' | 0:05:03 | 0:05:07 | |
-Welcome to Antiparos. -Thank you very much. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN GREEK | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
We're going to go over to that hill and then down again. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
I'm assuming we're not going to get a great big vision of the house | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
because we know that it's 80% or 90% under the ground, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
so will we see it at all before we get there? | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
You'll see it. It's a bit of a surprise, really. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
-Is that the house? Oh, my Lord. -Wow. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
What a spot. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:36 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
Oh, what a beautiful place! | 0:05:49 | 0:05:50 | |
It's beautiful. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:52 | |
SHE SINGS A HIGH NOTE | 0:05:52 | 0:05:53 | |
I know, I know. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
'By hiding the majority of this structure beneath the landscape, | 0:05:56 | 0:06:00 | |
'the architects managed to create a huge house on this site which both | 0:06:00 | 0:06:05 | |
'embraces the view and retains the natural charm of this location.' | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
Now, the owners are not here but they're very happy for you | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
to have a look around. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:13 | |
Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Theo, it's really, really kind of you. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
Enjoy your time and I'll see you later. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
Thank you very, very much. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
So, Caroline, tell me now, looking at this, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:22 | |
are you still worried about feeling claustrophobic down there? | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
Not yet. Not yet, but I'm not making up my mind, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
I'm not making up my mind yet. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
But, look at it, it's extraordinarily beautiful. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
This concealed home sits on a generous six-acre plot. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
Around 9,000 cubic metres of earth was excavated from the site, | 0:06:39 | 0:06:44 | |
creating a giant crater. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
A concrete foundation and rear and internal walls | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
were then built in this void, ten metres deep. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
The building unfolds on two levels | 0:06:54 | 0:06:57 | |
to allow space for multiple bedrooms, | 0:06:57 | 0:06:59 | |
bathrooms and terraces with private sea views. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
Concrete shafts rise up from the rear of the building | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
to allow ventilation and natural light | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
to enter the underground spaces. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
To fit in with the local architecture, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
Ktima's traditional white walls change direction | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
after every ten metres. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
The green roof is covered in indigenous plants, | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
allowing the underground living spaces to be invisible, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
with only the pool terrace and whitewashed walls on view. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
These walls look really enticing, don't they? | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
-How are you with heights? -Not as good as you. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
You should come up, it's great. Look. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
-OK. -Caroline, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
there's all these lovely little terraces and courtyards within here. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
That's such a private space, as well. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
-And there'll be another one there. -Yeah, another little private space. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
God, that's clever, isn't it? | 0:07:50 | 0:07:52 | |
It's a real sense of sort of intimacy, isn't there? | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
You could be naked reading a book all afternoon. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
There's a thought. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:58 | |
This is such a lovely, enticing space. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
I mean, look at this, I don't know whether I'm inside or outside. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
I thought this was just a canopy of bamboo covering, this space, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
but actually there's glass up there so you can sit here even when it's raining. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:16 | |
I mean, look at these walls and shapes and the shadow and | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
the shade, it's so beautiful. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:20 | |
And looking back through there, Caroline, to the sea. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
Yeah. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:24 | |
This is the dream for me, this is absolutely the dream. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
It's a kind of, sort of, lesson | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
in how to build a villa in a hot country. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
What I admire about the building is that it's a very clever bit of | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
architecture, it's very thorough and really well-integrated with | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
this place and that's why I warmed to it so much. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
'By hiding this modern whitewashed house in the landscape, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
'it not only retains the island's architectural heritage, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
'it also benefits from traditional methods of keeping living spaces cool underground.' | 0:08:54 | 0:09:00 | |
I really want to have a nosy upstairs, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:02 | |
just work out how it all fits together. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
I really want to have a peek about in here. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
-I'll catch you later. -OK. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:09 | |
This feels obviously like a really contemporary house | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
but, at the same time, it has the qualities of something | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
that's really ancient because people have been building in hot countries | 0:09:18 | 0:09:22 | |
like this for hundreds and hundreds of years. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:24 | |
What they've been doing is building in a way that harnesses | 0:09:24 | 0:09:29 | |
the qualities of the ground, and, under the ground, | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
is a stable temperature, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
so all of the living rooms in this house are under the ground. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:37 | |
What happens then is that that lovely cool sea breeze | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
is used to draw air through those rooms and then out of those shafts, | 0:09:41 | 0:09:47 | |
those light shafts that are behind. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
And those shafts also bring light to the back of the rooms that would | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
also be dark. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:53 | |
Unlike a normal house where you have light coming in from both sides, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
an underground house can't do that, so you need to bring in light. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:59 | |
This is actually the deepest underground | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
that this house gets and, look, really light. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
I think for many years as architects we forgot how to do buildings that | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
really spoke of their place. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
But this building shows that you can harness ancient technologies and | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
still do a building that is totally contemporary. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
I'm loving this, I'm loving this over here. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
All it is | 0:10:24 | 0:10:25 | |
is a little bit of light coming down but it's painted orange, | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
so it just shines out neon, and, up there, all I can see is the bright, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:34 | |
bright blue of the sky against the orange. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
It's so beautiful. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:39 | |
SHE SIGHS | 0:10:44 | 0:10:45 | |
All my misgivings about an underground house | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
being gloomy, and dark, and dank have completely disappeared | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
because this is light, and bright, and cool, | 0:10:54 | 0:10:59 | |
because it's really, really hot out there. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
And it's just perfect temperature in here. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
Oh... | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
It's got a lovely en suite. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
Hi, Caroline! | 0:11:15 | 0:11:16 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:11:16 | 0:11:17 | |
You going to turn the shower on? | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
-Yes. -You might take your clothes off first, but... | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
The view from here is so Greek, it couldn't be more Greek. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
It's white walls and then there's a blue dome but the blue dome is made | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
out of sky. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
This is like some ancient Greek hilltop town, isn't it? | 0:11:32 | 0:11:34 | |
Where the buildings are really | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
close together and all you get is that fantastic view of the sky | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
through the white walls. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
It's wonderful. It's so kind of refreshing down here as well, | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
you don't feel like you're baking in the hot sun. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
Because actually this is a device to bring the air through | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
and get the light in. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
The owners of this underground holiday home live in the UK | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
with their two children. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:00 | |
Karima is in London, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
so I'm giving her a call to find out what drew her family to this island. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:08 | |
Did you fall in love with it straight away? | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
'Straight away. Straight away. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
'Love at first sight.' | 0:12:14 | 0:12:15 | |
-Really? -'My husband and I, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:16 | |
'I think we were just about to be married | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
'and we looked out at the sunset | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
'and that was it, we said we need to see this sunset | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
'till the day we die.' | 0:12:24 | 0:12:25 | |
Oh, my God, that's so adorable! | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
But, in purchasing the land, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
the couple had also bought into plans for a proposed building | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
for the site, which had already been designed | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
by Portuguese architects Camilo Rabelo and Susana Martins. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
So, you designed this for somebody that hadn't bought it, | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
I mean, this was a speculative house for somebody. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
It's an abstract problem. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
-Yeah, yeah. -It was like a bridge. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:52 | |
It had a void below the structure and you could see through. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:57 | |
'The plan was a beautiful plan but it wasn't a plan that | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
'suited us as a family. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
'It was quite thin and quite narrow and we live in a tall, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
'thin house in London | 0:13:05 | 0:13:06 | |
'and we were very keen to have something with a bit more space, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
'a bit more light and air.' | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
They wanted a bigger house. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
How big? | 0:13:13 | 0:13:14 | |
-Double. -Double. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
And this started to change everything. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
'We spent a year working on those plans. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
'We kept changing them but it just... | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
'it didn't work with the dimensions and the scope that we wanted, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
'it was frustrating.' | 0:13:29 | 0:13:30 | |
Was it ever stressful? | 0:13:30 | 0:13:31 | |
Stressful... Demanding, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:34 | |
let's put it like that, because it was a lot of back and forward. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
'And, in the end, the architects and I sort of threw up our hands and | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
'said, "Do you know what, it just isn't working." | 0:13:42 | 0:13:44 | |
You had to abandon one idea, and how did that feel for you? | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
At the beginning, we were not very happy but... | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
It's always difficult to abandon an idea. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
And how long did it take you to get to a scheme | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
that was recognisably this? | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
-A minute. -Really? | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
-Can you show me the first sketch? -Yes. -I'm interested in that. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
First sketches are often the purist form of an idea. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
We started with two broken lines. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:09 | |
Also very basic thoughts. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
Like, for example, the Greek amphitheatres, so... | 0:14:11 | 0:14:15 | |
panoramic places for you to enjoy the view. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
What's interesting about this, though, | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
is that it's absolutely the opposite of the previous scheme, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
which was a bridge hovering above a piece of landscape, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
whereas this is a piece of landscape. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
It allows you to conceal a very big building very subtly, but it looks, | 0:14:30 | 0:14:36 | |
now, like a very finished building. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
The landscape is all grown back. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
But, actually, there must have been huge disturbance to make | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
this building, huge disturbance to the landscape? | 0:14:44 | 0:14:46 | |
In the beginning, I was very scared when they started the excavation, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:51 | |
-yeah, very scared. -It's a massive quarry, and it's huge destruction... | 0:14:51 | 0:14:56 | |
There is always a moment when you feel fear, and that is the moment, | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
when you see this immense crater, | 0:15:00 | 0:15:02 | |
you say nature is never to come back the same way. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
But then, it's our role, we are architects. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
Architecture means to construct, to build. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
There is no visible structure here, | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
but, tell me, how was it constructed? | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
These walls are three-layered bricks. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
-Traditional brick? -Traditional brick, which... | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
-How thick? -It's about 70 centimetres. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
And this is very good, for thermic reasons. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
This is the way they build here in Greece. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
Very thick walls, with deep reveals, with windows pushed right in. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:35 | |
'When the drawings came to life, and the structure was built, | 0:15:35 | 0:15:39 | |
'there were angles I could not have imagined. I knew the footprint of | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
'the building and drawings back to front, | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
'but when you looked at certain angles, | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
'just...it was beyond, it was beyond what we'd hoped and imagined.' | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
Standing back now, several years later, do you love this building? | 0:15:50 | 0:15:56 | |
I love this building. Totally love this building, yes! | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
This is what Karima fell in love with, | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
as she and her husband saw this plot of land, and, looking at it now, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:13 | |
they haven't made a mistake, have they? | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
No, I mean, this is, for me, what Greece is about, | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
this time of the evening, but facing west, getting the sunset over water. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:22 | |
I defy anybody to look at this view | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
and not think they've found paradise. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
Could you sell up and come here? | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
I think I could, but you'd have to build me a house. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
-Deal. -OK. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
Yes! | 0:16:37 | 0:16:38 | |
This view is something | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
that would make me leave my south-west leafy patch at home. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
If this was Hollywood, I'd be snogging you now. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:50 | |
The next stop on our underground adventure | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
takes us to the lush valleys of the Swiss Alps. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
-Oh, look down there! -I would, but I'm trying not to kill us. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
No, you look ahead! | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
'We're heading to the village of Vals, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
'perched over 1,000 metres above sea level, | 0:17:25 | 0:17:27 | |
'and surrounded by alpine pasture land.' | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
Look at these little dotted about, little shelters... | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
I think this is it, actually, this is Vals. Here we are, Vals. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
Beautiful little buildings, aren't they? | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
I mean, look up there, Caroline, | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
these little barns built into the hill. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
The only thing I know about these little chalets and things | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
is that I make one every Christmas out of gingerbread. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
Look at that little window! | 0:17:47 | 0:17:48 | |
That's ridiculous. If Hansel and Gretel aren't in there, | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
I want my money back. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
Although we're in the heart of Switzerland, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
the underground house we're looking for is | 0:17:57 | 0:17:59 | |
owned by Dutch architect, Bjarne Mastenbroek. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
Wanting to push his creative boundaries | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
and live out his childhood dream, | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
he built an underground den as a holiday home for his family. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
Bjarne found a small, mountainside plot of land, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
but it came with a caveat - | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
he had to keep the traditional agricultural | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
barn, which existed on the site. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
Piers, this is what we've been talking about, | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
these are the traditional farm buildings, | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
and these would have had the animals underneath, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
and the heat would have been rising up and drying out the hay. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:34 | |
But, of course, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:35 | |
as in everywhere in the world now, animal welfare have become involved, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:40 | |
so these are no longer available... | 0:18:40 | 0:18:42 | |
CAROLINE IS DROWNED OUT BY MUSIC FROM THE SOUND OF MUSIC | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
..monolithic... | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
Just a tragic waste... | 0:18:50 | 0:18:51 | |
Oh, dizzy! | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
'Halfway up the hillside, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
'we stumble upon the old barn we've been looking for.' | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
Well, this is the entrance. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:00 | |
-Yeah. -So somehow, underneath this, is our house, or...? | 0:19:00 | 0:19:04 | |
Yeah, well, I think we go into it, and then we'll discover it. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
It's very mysterious, isn't it? | 0:19:07 | 0:19:08 | |
-Shall I open it? -Yeah. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
-Ooh. -There's some hay. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
It's really exciting! | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
God, look at it. This is insane. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
Rather than get rid of the old farm building, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
Bjarne converted it into the entrance for his underground home. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
Talking about how to combine modern and ancient agricultural buildings, | 0:19:30 | 0:19:35 | |
this is like a masterclass in that, for me. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:36 | |
It is, it totally is. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:37 | |
-I mean, look at that concrete. -That's concrete, isn't it, yeah. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
Yeah, and just the bare light fittings. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
And look at that, that is the tunnel, I think, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
that takes us into the house. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:48 | |
Spooky, dark corridors | 0:19:48 | 0:19:49 | |
and being underground, I don't really like very much, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
but I can see light at the end of that tunnel. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
It feels like we're entering church. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
Or a catacomb. I'll tell you what it reminds me of, actually, | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
is when you go into the pyramids in Egypt. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:05 | |
-Yeah. -Where they draw you down into the earth. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
Yes. This is beautiful. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
That's lovely, isn't it? | 0:20:10 | 0:20:11 | |
It feels like it's been here for thousands of years. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:13 | |
And this slot of light here. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
I think it's really theatrical, I mean, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
the whole orchestrated entrance that leaves the world behind, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
and brings you into a sort of secret world. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
But it's also just beautiful material, | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
beautiful light, beautiful angles. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
And then, just there, look, the little finials and doorknobs. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
-Yeah. -To hang your coat on. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:41 | |
They're hilarious, aren't they? | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
Wow! I mean, the shaft of light there is just so lovely. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:47 | |
-Look at that. -Oh! | 0:20:47 | 0:20:48 | |
Isn't it ridiculous, Piers, that that's so small, and so exciting. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:54 | |
-Yeah. -It's just a little slash of light through concrete. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:58 | |
Why should that be so thrilling, but it is thrilling, isn't it? | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
I'm coming out in goose bumps. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:02 | |
As we find daylight again, | 0:21:06 | 0:21:08 | |
the concave facade of the main house | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
and its panoramic views are revealed. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
This is extraordinary, isn't it? | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
'The deceptively spacious living room is a complete contrast | 0:21:31 | 0:21:35 | |
'to the entrance tunnel. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:36 | |
'Despite being underground, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:39 | |
'the space is flooded with daylight and not at all what I'd expected.' | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
I have never seen you ever sit down in a house when we arrive. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:50 | |
I think, in a way, it's because that whole experience has been so | 0:21:50 | 0:21:54 | |
carefully orchestrated, the barn, that fantastic hall, | 0:21:54 | 0:21:58 | |
that when you come to this point, | 0:21:58 | 0:22:00 | |
so I'm ready to sit and just kind of drink it in. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
I mean, it's a stunning sitting room. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
This would do me. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:06 | |
The starting point for building this underground home | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
was to dig a void 36 feet deep into the hillside, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:14 | |
big enough to enclose this two-storey, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
four-bedroom house. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:17 | |
A thick, reinforced retaining wall was then poured, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
and internal walls were built from concrete. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
The front of the house is sealed by a concave facade, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
made from local stone, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
and scattered with windows to allow light | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
into every room of the property. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:34 | |
A 22-metre underground tunnel | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
connects the house to the barn entrance. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
To find out more about the inspiration | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
for this award-winning home, | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
we're meeting the owners, Bjarne and his wife, Katrin. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
-Hi, there. -Lovely to meet you. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
-And who's this? -It's Joanne. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
Joanne, hello, darling! | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
I've got to start by saying this is an extraordinarily beautiful house. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
Bit unusual, but... | 0:23:00 | 0:23:01 | |
What made you decide to build an underground house? | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
When I was young, I built a lot of underground huts with my friends, | 0:23:05 | 0:23:09 | |
and that idea I always kept in my mind. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
-Yeah. -So I thought it would be nice to do it, | 0:23:12 | 0:23:14 | |
and here it was quite obvious, because of the steep hill. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
I hope you don't mind the way I think of this house, but I feel, | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
it looks to me like a meteorite or a big cannonball has hit, | 0:23:20 | 0:23:25 | |
and then you pull it out, and you're left with this perfect circle. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:30 | |
And then inside that circle, you built a house. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
It's a perfect circle, under 45 degrees, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
so the projection of it is an ellipse. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
The design of this house reminds me of homes for burrowing animals. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:46 | |
Inside, the maze of rooms feels just like a warren. | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
I wouldn't be surprised to see a rabbit. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
The layout may flow seamlessly now, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:54 | |
but fitting a four-bedroom house in a small hole in the ground | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
was a huge challenge for Bjarne. | 0:23:57 | 0:23:59 | |
We spent a lot of time on the layout. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:01 | |
First, it was like a banana-shaped building, three stories, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
but we had to cut it down all the time, also because of budget, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:08 | |
until we reached, like, two, two-and-a-half stories, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:10 | |
and much more un-deep, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
so then you have to organise all the rooms | 0:24:12 | 0:24:14 | |
so that they can have daylight. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:16 | |
That was probably the trickiest thing to get in. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
The design of the house as an overall design took a lot of time, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:24 | |
and then we started building, but that took also more than two years. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:27 | |
And how evolved was the design when you started building? | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
Was it absolutely finished, or...? | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
No, no, not at all. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
So, we also accepted mistakes. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
Maybe you will see in the tunnel there is one skylight | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
that has a real bow in it, | 0:24:39 | 0:24:40 | |
so something went wrong, and then you come here, | 0:24:40 | 0:24:44 | |
and the contractors say, "Oh, I'm very sorry, I have to take it down." | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
I say, "Oh, no, it's fine, keep it." | 0:24:47 | 0:24:48 | |
And then he's looking at you like, "What? Can I keep it like this?" | 0:24:48 | 0:24:52 | |
Because it's not perfect. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:53 | |
-How amazing. -You know, we don't want to have it perfect. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
My idea is that, for architecture, you don't need perfection. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
In a way, perfect architecture tends to become very boring. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
Although Bjarne was relaxed during the complex build of this underground house, | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
there was one aspect that he wouldn't compromise on. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
He was adamant about using a local construction team, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
out of respect for the area. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
To buy a cup of coffee is massively expensive here. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
Is it massively expensive to use Swiss builders? | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
Yes! | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
-It is. -So did you have a budget in mind when you started this build? | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
Yeah, but we didn't make it. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
You didn't make it by what, a little or a lot? | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
A lot. You know, I think we ran over budget about two-and-a-half times. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
Did the villagers take to the idea of you building it, | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
because it's so unlike anything else around here? | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
I think in the beginning they didn't believe it would ever be built. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:48 | |
It was like it's too crazy, they won't be able to build it. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
-What, they didn't think you could do it? -Yeah. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:53 | |
They said later on, when it was built, | 0:25:53 | 0:25:55 | |
that they gave a building permit within three weeks, | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
which is very fast, because they thought it wouldn't be built. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
And now that you are here, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:02 | |
and you're very much part of this village, | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
do the people in the village accept you, and like this house? | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
I think so. We had an open door for one day, when it was finished, | 0:26:08 | 0:26:12 | |
and we expected, like 50 or 60 people, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
but it turned out that one third of the village came, over 350 people. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | |
-That's a lot of cups of tea! -So they were curious, they were curious. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
Yeah. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:23 | |
So this is a really beautiful space, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
I mean, this is so sensual, you know, bathed in this pink light. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
I love it, that's the mirror, isn't it, from the kitchen? | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
Yeah. One-way mirror. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:38 | |
-Yeah. -But actually it shows that you don't always need lots of daylight, | 0:26:38 | 0:26:43 | |
but you need the quality of light, and this has a very, sort of, | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
serene quality, again. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
Into the light. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
Yeah, this is the, you could say, architectural bedroom. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
Look at that. Oh! That's beautiful, | 0:26:58 | 0:27:00 | |
that's beautiful. That's just Switzerland in a picture frame. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:05 | |
Yeah. Yeah, it's really the mountain we framed here. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:10 | |
I love the, sort of, ad hoc-ness of this. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:15 | |
The funny thing is, if you find a Japanese closet like this, | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
that fits up to three millimetres to the house you already built... | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
So it had to be this one. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:23 | |
So had you made any plans for steps? | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
No, we forgot a lot in this house while designing! | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
I really like that idea, that, in fact, | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
creativity sometimes comes out of mistakes, unplanned things. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
Some of the best things we didn't design, they just happened. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
I love this bedroom, this is so secret-y bedroom. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
But, you know, that's why architecture's not so important, | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
it's the bed linen, at the end of the day! | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
CAROLINE LAUGHS | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
Oh, that's good, very good. | 0:27:57 | 0:27:59 | |
How much pleasure do you get from coming here? | 0:28:00 | 0:28:04 | |
Oh, a lot. That's why we come as often as we can. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
I think the main thing is | 0:28:08 | 0:28:09 | |
that it's really completely different from being | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
-in the big city. -When you first walked in today, Piers, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
I've never seen you react in quite the same way. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:17 | |
-What was it? -I did, I guess I instinctively responded to | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
the space, and atmosphere, and drama. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
But do you know why? | 0:28:23 | 0:28:25 | |
Because architecture nowadays is too much about what you see, | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
and the nice thing of an underground house is you can't get an image from | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
this house, because the only thing you see is this hole. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
So, you have to explore it, and to undergo it, | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
which is different from looking at only. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
Whereas this is rare, in that we can never judge it as an object. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:45 | |
The only reason we were able to buy the land was that the old farmer | 0:28:45 | 0:28:49 | |
didn't want to sell... He wanted to sell the land, | 0:28:49 | 0:28:53 | |
but every time there was almost a sale, he backed out, | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
and we didn't understand why from other people before us. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:00 | |
But then I asked him can we keep the barn? | 0:29:00 | 0:29:04 | |
And then the old man said, "Ah, you want to keep the barn? | 0:29:04 | 0:29:07 | |
"Then I want to sell." So it turned out that he never wanted to sell | 0:29:07 | 0:29:12 | |
because of destructing his old barn. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:14 | |
But that's so moving. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
Has that farmer been back to see the house? | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
Yeah, yeah, he came in, two sticks, 93 years old. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:22 | |
And he was sitting very proudly here at the table while these 350 people | 0:29:22 | 0:29:27 | |
from the village also entered the house. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:29 | |
Yeah, that's too hot for me. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:36 | |
-It's perfect for me. -Yeah, but it's too hot for me! | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
How about we grab some water? Can we use this? | 0:29:40 | 0:29:43 | |
Yeah, this is a well we struck when we built the house. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
And, so, this is just beautiful drinking water? | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
It's perfect drinking water. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:49 | |
Six litres per minute. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:50 | |
-Really? -Yeah. It's ten degrees, summer and winter. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:53 | |
Oh, God, it's beautiful water. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:55 | |
-Perfect. -And one thing is missing. | 0:29:57 | 0:30:00 | |
Oh! This house has got absolutely everything. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
Now I realise I didn't bring my swimmers. | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
-I'll get in in my undies. -All right. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
-It is quite warm, actually. -Come and sit here. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:15 | |
Come and sit this side. That side is very hot, isn't it, Piers? | 0:30:15 | 0:30:18 | |
Too hot for you, Piers?! | 0:30:18 | 0:30:20 | |
-All right?! -It's perfect, actually. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:22 | |
-Do you want a little dribble? -Lovely. Yes, please. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
-That'll do you. -A little dribble of pleasure. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:26 | |
-Thank you. -Ooh! | 0:30:26 | 0:30:28 | |
Everything about this house delights me. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
The entrance, the coming in, the fact that it's an underground house, | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
which really surprises me. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:42 | |
Yeah, not many buildings make me lose or forget my professional self | 0:30:42 | 0:30:47 | |
and actually just experience it in all it's sort of dramatic glory. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:53 | |
And this one, I really did. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:54 | |
Cheers. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:57 | |
I'm absolutely poached! | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
Our next underground house takes us down under | 0:31:25 | 0:31:28 | |
to New Zealand's South Island. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:30 | |
The sunlight on these peaks is really heavenly. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:37 | |
We're heading to a home built on an exposed plot of untamed wilderness. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:41 | |
The owner wanted a peaceful retreat to retire to, | 0:31:43 | 0:31:46 | |
where she could connect with this stunning scenery. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:49 | |
Really, it's sublime, isn't it? | 0:31:49 | 0:31:51 | |
Yeah, it's beautiful. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:53 | |
The challenge for the design director was to create | 0:31:53 | 0:31:56 | |
a relaxing space in this remote environment, | 0:31:56 | 0:31:58 | |
which would enhance the raw landscape, not destroy it. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:02 | |
Critically, this place is so beautiful, it's so fragile, | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
the natural beauty of this place, | 0:32:07 | 0:32:09 | |
that this house couldn't begin to compete with this scenery. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
In this conflict of house versus scenery, | 0:32:13 | 0:32:15 | |
the design director needed to do something different. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
As he was building in New Zealand, | 0:32:20 | 0:32:22 | |
a country which embraces architectural innovation, | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
he decided to design a house underground to soften the impact | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
a structure would have on this undulating landscape. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
It must be rather nice for architects here | 0:32:32 | 0:32:35 | |
not to be hidebound by that massive | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
weight of history on their shoulders, like Georgian buildings, | 0:32:37 | 0:32:41 | |
-thatched cottages, and all that. -Completely. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
They don't have any of that stuff to kind of deal with, do they? | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
None. I'm throttled by that where I am. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:48 | |
I live near Bath, and everything that you build, | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
you have to consider in the context | 0:32:51 | 0:32:53 | |
of something that was built 200 years ago. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:55 | |
And it's almost like that period in time has to be frozen in aspic | 0:32:55 | 0:32:59 | |
forever. But they have none of those preconceptions here. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
You can build anything. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:03 | |
But the critical thing is, | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
it's got to belong in terms of how it relates to nature. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
Now I can see a little sort of boomerang shape, | 0:33:09 | 0:33:13 | |
a little wing shape, | 0:33:13 | 0:33:14 | |
on the right. I think this might be where we're going, Piers. | 0:33:14 | 0:33:17 | |
Hang on, hang on. Yeah, here, yeah. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:19 | |
-Right. -The glimpse I had, it looks like a little bird has landed. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:23 | |
-There we are. -You can't get more discreet than that, can you? | 0:33:23 | 0:33:26 | |
That's a little hidden house tucked into a hill. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:28 | |
I like that very much. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:30 | |
-Shall we have a look? -Let's. | 0:33:30 | 0:33:31 | |
Wonderful views, aren't they? | 0:33:32 | 0:33:34 | |
It's lovely, isn't it? This is the flight path into Queenstown. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
There's a plane coming in, Caroline. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
The landscape here has a raw elegance. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
But with this natural splendour | 0:33:49 | 0:33:51 | |
comes the threat of natural disaster. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
Despite its weightless appearance, | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
this house has been designed and heavily engineered to withstand | 0:33:57 | 0:34:01 | |
the threat of earthquakes. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:03 | |
I'm really interested in how this big wing of a roof just sits very | 0:34:04 | 0:34:09 | |
delicately, as if it's floating. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
It's like a kite. That's what it reminds me of. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
A tiny delicate edge that looks fragile, but, actually, remember, | 0:34:14 | 0:34:17 | |
is designed to resist seismic forces. | 0:34:17 | 0:34:20 | |
My father was in the RAF. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:21 | |
And when I was a little girl he used to make me paper planes. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:23 | |
-Did he? -Almost exactly that shape. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:26 | |
As this building is mostly hidden underground, | 0:34:28 | 0:34:30 | |
it allows the landscape to take centre stage. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:33 | |
However, I'm intrigued that this house doesn't give away its | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
subterranean qualities at first glance. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
I'm going to have to go up and have a look and get my bearings, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:43 | |
because I can't quite work out what is where. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
-I'll see you in a bit. -OK. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:48 | |
Looking down here, I can already see different levels | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
that really are underground. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:53 | |
I think this house is all about the landscape and nothing else, | 0:34:54 | 0:34:58 | |
because standing here now, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:00 | |
with the sun rising over the top of that mountain, | 0:35:00 | 0:35:02 | |
it shows that houses aren't about creating an impression. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:05 | |
They're about creating atmosphere and rooting you in a landscape. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:09 | |
To nestle the property within the land, | 0:35:11 | 0:35:13 | |
dynamite was used to excavate 5,000 cubic metres of earth and rock, | 0:35:13 | 0:35:18 | |
to create bunkers in the ground. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
The floor plan of this three-bedroom house | 0:35:22 | 0:35:24 | |
is separated into two different structures. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:27 | |
A main house with living areas and bedrooms, | 0:35:27 | 0:35:30 | |
and a separate annexe. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:32 | |
The underground areas are constructed from concrete, | 0:35:34 | 0:35:37 | |
with east-facing glass facades to maximise natural light. | 0:35:37 | 0:35:40 | |
The highly engineered wing-shaped roof is made from timber and heavily | 0:35:43 | 0:35:47 | |
reinforced with steel to safeguard it against seismic activity. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:51 | |
I mean, I know it's ostensibly an underground house, | 0:35:53 | 0:35:56 | |
but I don't feel remotely like I'm under the ground. | 0:35:56 | 0:36:00 | |
I feel like I'm almost in the sky. | 0:36:00 | 0:36:02 | |
Well, you're under a wing, aren't you? | 0:36:02 | 0:36:04 | |
Held up by this huge core. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:06 | |
Chosen for its extreme strength and contemporary appearance, | 0:36:08 | 0:36:11 | |
concrete was the primary material used in constructing this house. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:15 | |
Almost 1,000 cubic metres were poured to create | 0:36:17 | 0:36:20 | |
the rock solid floors, | 0:36:20 | 0:36:21 | |
walls and the central hearth structure. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:25 | |
This is a huge block of concrete right in the middle of the house. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
This goes right the way down into the underground bit of the house. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:33 | |
And when all this is moving around in an earthquake, | 0:36:33 | 0:36:35 | |
this is the most important part of the building. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:38 | |
It doesn't feel to me as if it could withstand a slight gust of wind. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:42 | |
It's very odd. It feels paper thin and delicate, | 0:36:42 | 0:36:48 | |
but you think it's a rufty, tufty house, is it? | 0:36:48 | 0:36:50 | |
Totally. This is a piece of ground. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:52 | |
This is a rock. And the whole house is made out of concrete. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
And concrete is about the strongest material, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:56 | |
but it's also the most thermally efficient material. | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
So here we are in the middle of winter, and that sun is coming in, | 0:36:59 | 0:37:03 | |
hitting this concrete early in the morning and heating up the house. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:06 | |
So it's a very clever house in terms of how the light works | 0:37:06 | 0:37:10 | |
and how the mass of the concrete does so much, | 0:37:10 | 0:37:12 | |
other than just be nice to look at. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:14 | |
Downstairs, sunken below ground level, | 0:37:17 | 0:37:19 | |
there are two snug bedrooms wrapped in earth on three sides, | 0:37:19 | 0:37:23 | |
but still flooded with daylight. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:25 | |
We're right in the rock now, aren't we? | 0:37:26 | 0:37:29 | |
-Underground? -Yeah. This is what is great about building in the ground. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:32 | |
All the rooms have direct access | 0:37:32 | 0:37:34 | |
right the way out into the landscape. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
But, actually, down here, there is a sense of the house enveloping you, | 0:37:36 | 0:37:40 | |
and really cocooning you. | 0:37:40 | 0:37:42 | |
And this is the bedrock. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:43 | |
This is the ground that they had to hollow out to | 0:37:43 | 0:37:46 | |
make this house. I mean, gosh, that would have taken some doing. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
How did they do that, dynamite? | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
Yeah. Beautiful layered rock strata, isn't it? | 0:37:51 | 0:37:53 | |
What, just blow a massive crater? | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
Blow a massive hole and fill it full of house. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:57 | |
-Really? -Yeah. But it's interesting, because the house is quite nestled. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:00 | |
And I think unless you did that, | 0:38:00 | 0:38:02 | |
the house would be perched on the top of this hill | 0:38:02 | 0:38:04 | |
at the mercy of the elements. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
This house is very complex in many ways. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
It takes on enormous themes of landscape | 0:38:13 | 0:38:17 | |
in this big, expansive wilderness. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:20 | |
But, at its heart, it's a very simple exercise in homemaking. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
And at the heart of this house is the hearth, the fireplace. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:29 | |
What the hearth also does is root this house right the way down to | 0:38:29 | 0:38:34 | |
the ground. And what happens is the ground is cut around it to make some | 0:38:34 | 0:38:40 | |
bedrooms, a lot of concrete in the ground here. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:42 | |
And then the roof, very thin edges, | 0:38:42 | 0:38:45 | |
kicks up and is anchored right the way to the top of this hearth. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:50 | |
And then there's the bedrooms, and then there's living spaces above. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:56 | |
And what the sun is then allowed to do, | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
is to enter around here and go around at the end of the day | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
to there. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:04 | |
So what you get is a fantastic quality of light in the morning. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:07 | |
And then in the evening, underneath, | 0:39:07 | 0:39:11 | |
all of this. And, really, that's it. | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
This fantastic hearth that really does everything. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:18 | |
And it's really effective. | 0:39:18 | 0:39:20 | |
I'm off to discover owner Louise's favourite room, | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
an underground chamber, completely separate from the main house. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:33 | |
Louise calls this her inner sanctum. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:37 | |
And I can see exactly what she means, | 0:39:37 | 0:39:39 | |
because if you're going to have a private space, | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
somewhere to disappear into | 0:39:42 | 0:39:43 | |
when the family are having a thrashing party over the road, | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
you want some peace and quiet, this is the perfect place to have it. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
You've got a beautiful bed with absolutely magnificent views. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:54 | |
A bath that overlooks the mountain. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:56 | |
And even a fireplace. | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
I suppose these are built-in wardrobes. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
It must be great to have so much space for all your... | 0:40:04 | 0:40:06 | |
No, it's not a built-in wardrobe! | 0:40:06 | 0:40:08 | |
It's a kitchen! It's a kitchen in the bedroom. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
Oh, my Lord! That's marvellous. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
What else is here? Sorry. Won't be a second. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:16 | |
It's a fridge! I love that! | 0:40:16 | 0:40:19 | |
Again, there's this fantastic use of concrete here. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
Just like in the other house. | 0:40:25 | 0:40:27 | |
These are two separate houses. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
And then here it's been cut away, so there's a light that's allowed in. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:35 | |
This skylight is created through the concrete. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:37 | |
But what's really incredible to me | 0:40:37 | 0:40:40 | |
is you are suddenly aware of how thick this roof is. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:43 | |
It took owner Louise several years to find this plot of land, | 0:40:46 | 0:40:50 | |
and I'm keen to hear from her and her builder, Nichol Thomson, | 0:40:50 | 0:40:54 | |
what challenges they faced when constructing this home. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
What was it about building a house here for you? | 0:40:59 | 0:41:01 | |
For me, personally, it was about not living in the city. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:05 | |
And I guess slow down in some ways. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:07 | |
At what point was the decision made to make this an underground house? | 0:41:07 | 0:41:11 | |
The landscape was the most important part. | 0:41:11 | 0:41:14 | |
And the brief had a sentence in it which was, "Let the land speak." | 0:41:14 | 0:41:20 | |
The interesting thing is when you go through a process like this, | 0:41:20 | 0:41:23 | |
there are so many different kinds of design that you like. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:27 | |
-Yeah. -So, because the landform here is full of hills, | 0:41:27 | 0:41:32 | |
I really wanted the buildings to sit within the land. | 0:41:32 | 0:41:37 | |
We wanted the buildings to feel as though they had just been planted | 0:41:37 | 0:41:41 | |
into the ground. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:42 | |
So there was an incredible amount of effort that went into | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
thinking through how that would work. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
We are building here in a remote part of New Zealand. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
Everything has to be brought in by truck, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
often off-loaded two or three times before it arrives here. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:58 | |
Things get broken, things get lost. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:00 | |
The first thing was obviously trying to even work out the volume of earth | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
that had to be removed to build it into the landscape. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:05 | |
And then we had to use explosives to blow it all out. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
So a lot of the rock that came out, you'll see in parts, | 0:42:08 | 0:42:12 | |
retaining walls and things all around the property, | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
it's all been reused. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:16 | |
Constructing this unconventional house took a team of local craftsmen | 0:42:16 | 0:42:20 | |
three years to complete. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:23 | |
The experimental architecture meant a lot of problem-solving for Nichol. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:27 | |
Were there any points when you thought, "This is a tricky build." | 0:42:27 | 0:42:31 | |
Funnily enough, right at the start when we were troubleshooting... | 0:42:33 | 0:42:35 | |
The concrete's a special sort of a mix. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:38 | |
Concrete is a little bit like a cake, | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
for want of a better description, | 0:42:41 | 0:42:43 | |
so, essentially, the recipe had to be tried out | 0:42:43 | 0:42:46 | |
over and over and over again. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:48 | |
The aggregates, the stones, the cement percentages, the sand, | 0:42:48 | 0:42:52 | |
everything's quite different here. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:54 | |
We ended up, we had sort of a little sort of concrete graveyard | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
for a while, with about ten or 12 little... | 0:42:57 | 0:42:59 | |
-Tombstones. -..tombstones. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:01 | |
It took ten or 12 tries? | 0:43:01 | 0:43:02 | |
Yeah, it took us about six weeks. | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
And at any point did you think, "Oh, I wish I hadn't start this?" | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
I think everyone does. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
I think construction is stressful, it's tiring. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:14 | |
And the whole time you are looking at the spaces that you've studied | 0:43:14 | 0:43:19 | |
and planned intensely over, going, | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
"Is it big enough, is it small enough, | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
"does it feel right?" | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
And so you run this roller-coaster of emotion through the whole | 0:43:26 | 0:43:30 | |
construction period. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:31 | |
And now it's actually finally built... | 0:43:31 | 0:43:33 | |
-Yes? -..is there anything you'd change about it? | 0:43:33 | 0:43:35 | |
I'd probably put a few more power points in! | 0:43:35 | 0:43:37 | |
One of the things that fascinates me about this house | 0:43:47 | 0:43:50 | |
is that it takes you underground and cossets you | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
with this fantastic hearth, | 0:43:53 | 0:43:55 | |
and then it pushes you out into the wilderness. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:58 | |
One minute you feel very, very safe, under the ground, | 0:43:58 | 0:44:02 | |
and the next minute you feel like you're a bird, | 0:44:02 | 0:44:05 | |
soaring above the white peaks of the mountains. | 0:44:05 | 0:44:09 | |
Very clever. | 0:44:10 | 0:44:11 | |
'The last stop on our journey to unearth underground homes takes us | 0:44:30 | 0:44:34 | |
'to the Netherlands, and Piers has insisted we adopt the local method | 0:44:34 | 0:44:39 | |
'of transport.' | 0:44:39 | 0:44:40 | |
Piers, you go ahead because I'm really wobbly! | 0:44:40 | 0:44:42 | |
'We're heading to a Dutch nature reserve, | 0:44:43 | 0:44:46 | |
'just 20 miles out of the city centre. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
'This protected woodland is considered a local beauty spot, | 0:44:49 | 0:44:52 | |
'and the perfect escape from the bustle of city life.' | 0:44:52 | 0:44:55 | |
I love that, that you can live in a piece of wilderness but it's only | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
half an hour from a fantastic cosmopolitan city - Amsterdam. | 0:44:59 | 0:45:03 | |
This is my idea of heaven. | 0:45:03 | 0:45:04 | |
The four bedroom family home | 0:45:08 | 0:45:10 | |
we're visiting is owned by architect Sanne Oomen. | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
where she lives with her husband, Lucas, and their two children. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
This family are passionate about living in a sustainable way. | 0:45:19 | 0:45:22 | |
They undertook the challenge of building a large, | 0:45:22 | 0:45:25 | |
contemporary home embedded in the landscape, | 0:45:25 | 0:45:27 | |
so that it integrates with the local nature reserve. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:30 | |
And, Piers, this is a proper eco-build? | 0:45:32 | 0:45:36 | |
It is, it absolutely is. | 0:45:36 | 0:45:37 | |
It's carbon neutral and is super insulated, | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
and that's why it's underground, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:43 | |
because they use all the earth to heat it and cool it. | 0:45:43 | 0:45:47 | |
And to build a house that's not visible, of course, | 0:45:47 | 0:45:51 | |
is important when you're dealing with a protected forest, | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
which this is. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:56 | |
Landscape is everything, I think, for this house. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:58 | |
So it's going to be really interesting to see how it fits in. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:01 | |
Here we are. This is gorgeous. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:04 | |
CAROLINE LAUGHS | 0:46:04 | 0:46:05 | |
I love it already! | 0:46:07 | 0:46:09 | |
Talk about green roof, that's the most bushy, green roof | 0:46:09 | 0:46:11 | |
I've ever seen. | 0:46:11 | 0:46:13 | |
It's a hobbit house! | 0:46:13 | 0:46:14 | |
So many eco-houses are so dry, this is so quirky already. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:28 | |
That's very interesting, because when you think of an eco-house you | 0:46:28 | 0:46:30 | |
suddenly become serious. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:32 | |
-Yeah. -So, "Oh, no, we're protecting the Earth, | 0:46:32 | 0:46:34 | |
"it's got to be very serious." | 0:46:34 | 0:46:35 | |
-Dry muesli. -Dry muesli and dripping rainwater. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
And, actually, this is just hilarious. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
But so much of this is banished from contemporary architecture - | 0:46:40 | 0:46:45 | |
humour, wit, life, and this is so verdant and bushy. | 0:46:45 | 0:46:49 | |
It's wonderful, look at it! | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
"Welcome... | 0:46:53 | 0:46:54 | |
"Mel..Melle, Mats..." | 0:46:54 | 0:46:56 | |
Oh, this is the children... "Melle, Mats, | 0:46:56 | 0:46:58 | |
"Sonne and Lucas. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:00 | |
"All living here." | 0:47:00 | 0:47:03 | |
It's very stylish, isn't it? | 0:47:03 | 0:47:04 | |
Very stylish, the arrow is very stylish. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
I wonder what's behind here. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:08 | |
-We can find out because I've got the key to the door. -The buzzer. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:11 | |
There we are. | 0:47:11 | 0:47:13 | |
-This is great. -Oh, look! | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
Now, listen, I'm thrilled to see this. | 0:47:18 | 0:47:21 | |
I think it's so lovely to see people using things in a new and kind of | 0:47:21 | 0:47:25 | |
-fun way. -Yes. This is stuffed full of things, this house, isn't it? | 0:47:25 | 0:47:29 | |
Look, that's beautiful. | 0:47:29 | 0:47:31 | |
I can hear you. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:32 | |
Do you know, that reminds me, that reminds me of an old friend... | 0:47:32 | 0:47:36 | |
There's so much to look at. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:38 | |
I already want to know what that is. | 0:47:38 | 0:47:39 | |
That's a light into the basement, | 0:47:39 | 0:47:40 | |
I know that without even going down there. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
So that light is coming straight downstairs into the basement? | 0:47:42 | 0:47:45 | |
-Straight downstairs. -Because, oh, God, we're underground, that's why, | 0:47:45 | 0:47:48 | |
-I've just realised. -Yes. -So that is in the surface of the garden | 0:47:48 | 0:47:52 | |
that we've just walked through. | 0:47:52 | 0:47:54 | |
-Yeah. -And suddenly, opening up, and, look, we're outside again. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:58 | |
Piers, this is so exciting. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:03 | |
I love it, I love it. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:04 | |
I love the way they live in it. | 0:48:04 | 0:48:06 | |
Yes, we're underground, | 0:48:06 | 0:48:07 | |
we're underneath that roof at the moment but I don't feel it at all, | 0:48:07 | 0:48:11 | |
because we're connected both by those skylights there | 0:48:11 | 0:48:14 | |
and then straight out the front there. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:16 | |
And what a brilliant panorama of this incredible woodland. | 0:48:16 | 0:48:19 | |
I'm very excited. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:20 | |
Me too, I don't know where to go. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:22 | |
Let's go down there! | 0:48:22 | 0:48:23 | |
This eco-home was designed to be part of the natural environment | 0:48:25 | 0:48:29 | |
and to champion sustainable principles. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
After deep excavation and the laying of concrete foundations, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:36 | |
the bedrooms and bathrooms were stacked across three floors | 0:48:36 | 0:48:40 | |
on the north side of the building. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:41 | |
A large, open-plan living space inhabits the south. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
From the north side, the entire building is embedded | 0:48:46 | 0:48:49 | |
in earth and greenery, | 0:48:49 | 0:48:50 | |
for natural insulation and camouflage. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:53 | |
The south facing glass facade and a series of skylights bring natural | 0:48:54 | 0:48:58 | |
light into even the deepest parts of the house. | 0:48:58 | 0:49:01 | |
The interior of this home is crammed full of the art the couple have | 0:49:04 | 0:49:08 | |
collected and sits alongside bespoke, handcrafted furniture, | 0:49:08 | 0:49:12 | |
made from reclaimed and up-cycled objects and materials. | 0:49:12 | 0:49:16 | |
And, look, your taxi's here! | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
That's comedy, isn't it? | 0:49:19 | 0:49:22 | |
-That's a Daimler. -It is. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:23 | |
What's brilliant, this furniture is actually upside down | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
and on its side, and it's about, I think, | 0:49:28 | 0:49:31 | |
saying take a look at things from a different perspective. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
Let's turn this on its head. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:36 | |
A lot of architects did this in the '70s. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:38 | |
They put radiators on the ceiling and at strange angles and things. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:41 | |
They've got it right here. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:42 | |
They know how to do what's practical, | 0:49:42 | 0:49:45 | |
but to make it beautiful, and funny, and clever, | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
and interesting, and great to use. | 0:49:48 | 0:49:51 | |
This eclectic mix of up-cycled furnishings | 0:49:51 | 0:49:54 | |
are a stunning example of great design, | 0:49:54 | 0:49:57 | |
fused with zero waste eco-principles. | 0:49:57 | 0:49:59 | |
The centrepiece of the whole house is this big Finnish...? Finn oven? | 0:50:01 | 0:50:06 | |
Finn - F-I-N-N, as in Finnish, | 0:50:06 | 0:50:08 | |
and the principle is that the flue snakes around | 0:50:08 | 0:50:11 | |
to make sure that all of the heat, 90% of it, stays in here. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:16 | |
So, they're not just pipes that go up, | 0:50:16 | 0:50:18 | |
and therefore you lose all the heat out the top? | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
This actually stays in the body of the oven? | 0:50:20 | 0:50:22 | |
And because it's made out of concrete, | 0:50:22 | 0:50:24 | |
this will stay warm probably for 12 hours after the fire goes out. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:26 | |
Is this ancient or modern? | 0:50:26 | 0:50:28 | |
It's an ancient principle, but used in a 21st-century house. | 0:50:28 | 0:50:31 | |
Alongside the Finn oven, | 0:50:33 | 0:50:34 | |
the house is heated by a wood pellet boiler system | 0:50:34 | 0:50:37 | |
and solar panels placed due south, to maximise the sun's rays. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:42 | |
This provides enough renewable electricity | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
to power the entire house and the family's electric car | 0:50:45 | 0:50:48 | |
all year round. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
Even the orientation of the house is positioned | 0:50:52 | 0:50:54 | |
with environmental sensitivity. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
There's clearly a hierarchy of the spaces, | 0:50:57 | 0:50:59 | |
so clearly the main spaces that get the light and height face south, | 0:50:59 | 0:51:03 | |
face the view, and that's where you live. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
Then the less important spaces buried at the back, | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
because they don't need the light. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:10 | |
But here, also, these roof lights let in tonnes of light. | 0:51:10 | 0:51:13 | |
A roof light lets in between three and six times as much light | 0:51:13 | 0:51:17 | |
-as a window. -Really? -Seriously, because you get the sky coming in. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:21 | |
-I never knew that! -And it's flooded with light up there, | 0:51:21 | 0:51:24 | |
just from a couple of roof lights. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:27 | |
But it's chock full of surprises, isn't it? | 0:51:27 | 0:51:29 | |
Oh! | 0:51:29 | 0:51:30 | |
You knew that was going to happen! | 0:51:32 | 0:51:34 | |
SHE GASPS | 0:51:34 | 0:51:35 | |
Oh... | 0:51:37 | 0:51:38 | |
This is another world in here. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:45 | |
And look how thick that bit of ground is up to the sky. | 0:51:47 | 0:51:51 | |
That's how far we are underground. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:54 | |
PATTERING | 0:51:54 | 0:51:56 | |
I can hear the rain. | 0:51:56 | 0:51:57 | |
And even with the rain, you can feel the silence. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:02 | |
It's the perfect bedroom. | 0:52:07 | 0:52:08 | |
WHIRRING | 0:52:10 | 0:52:11 | |
This house is rich with layers of ideas and complexity, | 0:52:22 | 0:52:26 | |
but, at its heart, it's a very simple building. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:28 | |
You have some little spaces stacked on top of one another, | 0:52:28 | 0:52:33 | |
that then protect one big space, | 0:52:33 | 0:52:36 | |
which is where most of the living happens, | 0:52:36 | 0:52:39 | |
and you then take the eaves to make sure that summer sun, which is hot, | 0:52:39 | 0:52:45 | |
can't enter the building, | 0:52:45 | 0:52:46 | |
but winter sun can enter right into the back of the building. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:50 | |
And what you do then | 0:52:50 | 0:52:51 | |
is to take all of the earth and mound it up around the house, | 0:52:51 | 0:52:57 | |
as thick as possible, to make it protected from all the cold, | 0:52:57 | 0:53:02 | |
and earth is actually a very good insulator | 0:53:02 | 0:53:04 | |
when you mound it up really thick. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:06 | |
Earth, when you get down to a certain thickness, | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
is a stable temperature. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:10 | |
Then, of course, the winter sun | 0:53:10 | 0:53:13 | |
floods in and the summer sun is kept out. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:16 | |
The back of the house then has these little rooms, | 0:53:16 | 0:53:19 | |
these little cellular spaces - utilities, bathrooms - | 0:53:19 | 0:53:22 | |
that are buried in the back of the house, | 0:53:22 | 0:53:24 | |
where you don't need the light. | 0:53:24 | 0:53:26 | |
I love these old doors, set into these modern walls. | 0:53:32 | 0:53:35 | |
This is adorable, this room, it's adorable. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
It's obviously a child's bedroom. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:43 | |
It's so lovely. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:46 | |
With a little place for some little tacker to sit in this | 0:53:46 | 0:53:50 | |
beautiful, fascinating, bulbous little window on the world. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:55 | |
Sonne and Lucas spent four years | 0:53:58 | 0:54:00 | |
designing and building their underground home, | 0:54:00 | 0:54:02 | |
with friends and architects Oscar Vos and Thomas Dieben. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:06 | |
The choice to build a house underground, | 0:54:08 | 0:54:11 | |
where did that come from? | 0:54:11 | 0:54:14 | |
My family name is Mole, | 0:54:14 | 0:54:17 | |
all the family living... | 0:54:17 | 0:54:18 | |
No. We just wanted to build a sustainable home. | 0:54:20 | 0:54:24 | |
From the start, we had this sketch of a house, | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
with a big space like a hole, | 0:54:27 | 0:54:29 | |
and it was my first build and I didn't want to do it alone, | 0:54:29 | 0:54:33 | |
so I decided to ask friends from Delft, from university, | 0:54:33 | 0:54:37 | |
to do it with me. | 0:54:37 | 0:54:38 | |
I was actually quite nervous also about how it would be, | 0:54:38 | 0:54:42 | |
and also about the technical parts. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:44 | |
We were building it during the financial crisis, | 0:54:44 | 0:54:47 | |
so a lot of contractors fell down. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
It was hard labour, and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:55 | |
The basement was sort of extra, | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
because at first we couldn't dig in the ground. | 0:54:57 | 0:55:01 | |
Why? | 0:55:01 | 0:55:02 | |
We weren't allowed because it's a winning area, it was not allowed. | 0:55:02 | 0:55:06 | |
How did you get round that? | 0:55:06 | 0:55:08 | |
We told them it's really silly, | 0:55:08 | 0:55:11 | |
you are yourself digging holes to search for the water, 40 metres... | 0:55:11 | 0:55:19 | |
And a big swimming pool, a public swimming pool here. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:21 | |
-And they're telling us we're not allowed. -Yeah. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:23 | |
And then they changed their own regulations and we were allowed to. | 0:55:23 | 0:55:27 | |
So then we could dig, and then we said we want a basement, | 0:55:27 | 0:55:30 | |
and a very big basement. | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
Did your client interfere with your work quite a lot? | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
All the time! | 0:55:35 | 0:55:37 | |
-All the time, yeah. -But never fights. | 0:55:37 | 0:55:40 | |
All the time bigger and more special. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:44 | |
We had to make it possible. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:45 | |
Like starting architects, | 0:55:47 | 0:55:49 | |
they want to make a clean building with empty and... | 0:55:49 | 0:55:53 | |
-No, that's not true. -..and white walls. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:55 | |
-No, no, no, no, no. -Most architects do! | 0:55:55 | 0:55:58 | |
So it will fit in all the architecture magazines. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:01 | |
-Absolutely. -And I wanted crazy stuff. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:03 | |
Most architects are quite nervous | 0:56:03 | 0:56:06 | |
about that kind of bricolage of ideas. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:09 | |
-But I love it. -Me too. | 0:56:09 | 0:56:11 | |
Who did you go to about the budget, who did you talk to? | 0:56:11 | 0:56:15 | |
Because client-architect budget discussions are always difficult, | 0:56:15 | 0:56:18 | |
but when you're the client and the architect, | 0:56:18 | 0:56:20 | |
how did you have the budget discussions? | 0:56:20 | 0:56:22 | |
Yeah, how did we do that? | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
We never talked about the budget. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:29 | |
We just wanted to do it. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:30 | |
Maybe you need to talk about it now! | 0:56:30 | 0:56:32 | |
But what's really interesting is you have a super sustainable house that | 0:56:34 | 0:56:37 | |
uses very little energy, but you still have a Daimler. | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
Yeah, in Amsterdam you can do anything on your bike, | 0:56:40 | 0:56:44 | |
or with a tram, and we said to each other, | 0:56:44 | 0:56:48 | |
yeah, but we're going to build a sustainable house | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
and now we're going to | 0:56:51 | 0:56:53 | |
drive each day with a 25-year-old car, five-and-a-half litre engine. | 0:56:53 | 0:57:00 | |
I don't think Mother Earth will like it. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:03 | |
So we gave her a new life, as a cupboard in the kitchen. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:08 | |
And there was this big crane to put it in. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:12 | |
It was snowing in the winter... | 0:57:12 | 0:57:14 | |
She went in through the roof, through the last hole in the roof. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:17 | |
So she can never go out. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
She had to die for this green dream. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
What's extraordinary is that when we arrived here, | 0:57:34 | 0:57:38 | |
we looked up at that door and we had no idea | 0:57:38 | 0:57:42 | |
what lay behind it. | 0:57:42 | 0:57:44 | |
It's a world of make-believe, but it's real. | 0:57:44 | 0:57:47 | |
It's real, and, also, I get a very real sense that it's actually | 0:57:47 | 0:57:51 | |
sort of the future of the way we're going to live. | 0:57:51 | 0:57:54 | |
Because it reclaims what it is to live sustainably. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:57 | |
But it's also...it's retained its sense of humour, | 0:57:57 | 0:58:00 | |
and its joie de vivre, | 0:58:00 | 0:58:01 | |
its joy in family life. | 0:58:01 | 0:58:03 |